Every Tuesday night from now until Donald Trump is gone from the White House, I will be joining Divided We Stand creator Brian Weinstein on YouTube, Facebook, and Periscope for the talk and discussion show he hosts by the same name as the this companion blog page - Divided We Stand.
Sometimes, I will pick one crucial point from that show that I think needs to be reinforced and expanded upon and write about it.
Today's Point -- America Has Always Been Divided
As with all countries, America has its myths. For example, George Washington didn't chop down that cherry tree and he did tell lies (of course, not as many as Donald Trump can tell in one month). Paul Revere made a midnight ride, but he didn't shout "the British are coming:. Paul Bunyon didn't have a big blue ox named Babe.
But not all myths involved characters who grew into American legends. There are many myths about the country itself and one of the biggest is that the states that make up America have ever truly been united. Here's a skeletal, simplistic time line supporting my contention.
- 1700 to 1776 - division involves those who want to break from England and those who want to remain a British colony
- 1776 to 1788 - division involves what form of government the new country should have pitting those strongly for a centralized federal government vs. this who wanted more power for the states.
- 1788 to 1829 - division became political with the first political parties, on one side federalists led by Alexander Hamilton and on the other a states-rights Republican-Democrats led by Thomas Jefferson.
- 1829 to 1860 - division was for those who approved of slavery (mostly in the south) and those abolitionists mostly in the north and the growing western territories. The division was also economic with the south having large plantations and smaller cities supporting the cash crops cotton and tobacco and the north leaning more toward early industrialization and larger cities with bigger businesses.
- 1861 to 1865 - The Civil War with the north emerging victorious over the secessionist south. While the outcome allowed America to again call itself the United States, the differences between north and south have continued to plague our country today.
- 1865 to 1877 - The Reconstruction Era. The divisions centered the freedom of black slaves, their rights, and linger hostile feelings between north and south. Black equality and freedom issues continue to plague our country today.
- 1877 to 1900 - The Gilded Age. The growing economic gap between rich and poor. Conflicts in life styles in urban cities, the poor rural south, and the agricultural midwest. Religious dogma and faith vs. science. Industrialization and mechanization vs. farming and older traditions. Immigration. All of these sound familiar to us today since they have never really been resolved.
- 1900 to 1928 - The Progressive Era. The main divide during this period was activist reformers against entrenched power. The progressive movement attempted to address problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption. This was the time of the initial battles for women's rights and access to the vote. Another area of contention was a people of faith dismissing science and reason, which spilled over into disagreements about the role of public education. Again all of these are issues still with us today.
- 1929 to 1941 - The Great Depression. Poor vs. rich. Labor vs. management. State aid vs. right to work. The New Deal.
- 1941 - 1956. World War II. The beginning of the atomic age of anxiety. Communism. The Red Scare and McCarthyism. Growth of suburbs, reduction is cities. Beginnings of generation gap, young vs. old.
- 1957 to 1964 - Civil Rights . Racism. The Great Society.
- 1965 to 1974 - Vietnam War. Law and Order. Hippies vs. straights. Nixon and Silent Majority.
- 1976 to 2016. ERA. Abortion. Gay Rights. Increasing political partisanship, polarization, and power gridlock. Republicans vs. Democrats. Conservatives vs. Liberals. Rising economic inequality. Re-emergence of more hate groups. Immigration, particular from Mexico. 9/11 and terrorism. Technology vs. older ways. Evangelicals vs. non-believers. Private education vs. public education. Health care. Black Lives Matter.
- 2016 to today - The Donald Trump time of divisiveness, derision, delusion, degradation, and destruction. Almost all the issues from American history being refought again.
Now, of course, the above summary is not definitive, but I think it offers enough evidence to prove that the United States, while with the exception of the Civil War, has been indivisible, it has never been undivided nor unified.
However, the big difference between days past and today is that we know America survived all its previous challenges. The outcome of our current Trumpian time is still unknown.
These are Dave Price's thoughts.
Please share yours with us either in the comments section below
or send a longer reply to Dave directly at dleeprice69@gmail.com
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